~Cleaning Day~

Thursday is usually Cleaning Day. Big Boy's favorite days are Kitchen and Cleaning Day. He LOVES cooking and baking, and he loves ''helping'' me clean! I have a little Grime Boss duster and he dusts everything, including the dog. He gets the biggest kick out of turning the vacuum off while I'm not looking. I'll spin around and look surprised, he pretends he didn't do it. It sends him into a fit of giggles!

Look what happened to my bill box!

     When talking of cleaning, sometimes it seems it is swearing. "Oh, the dreaded 'C' word!!!!" I understand, there really isn't anything glamorous about cleaning toilets or scrubbing peanut butter and applesauce off the wall (don't ask!). I don't really mind the actual cleaning part. It is the "what do I do with all this stuff?" part that I don't like. Some of the answer is we have too much junk precious things. And some of it, we just don't have a place for everything yet!?! We have stacks of books because we don't have enough book shelves. There are toys all over the place because we don't have totes to store them in, to rotate out a few at a time. We don't have a cabinet for computer stuff, so that is all over the place (printer paper, CD's, cords, etc.). And I think Big Boy's collection of art and craft supplies grows overnight. I don't have a designated place for all of it. I'm going to fix at least some of these problems this year, Lord willing!

     I would have to say that the longest and most dreadful part of cleaning for me is picking up stuff so that I can get to the actual dirt. Once that is done, the rest is easy and straight forward.

This is how it goes:

    I put Little Boy in his crib, so he can watch us. I start upstairs cleaning windows (as needed), dusting, vacuuming. There is laminate flooring in Big Boy's room, so after I vacuum I run the steam mop over it. I empty the diaper pail and dust pictures on the wall. This doesn't take long. Usually by this time Little Boy is ready for his nap, and Big Boy has quiet time/nap time in his room, or goes downstairs with me. I vacuum down the stairs. I take Little Boy's play seat and Big Boy's potty seat and scrub them in the tub. Next I spray cleaner ( made with vinegar/water/Dawn) in the shower/tub, on the bathroom sink and toilet so it will soak a bit. Then I sweep the living room, move the couch and sweep, sweep the bathroom, dust surfaces, then vacuum the couch. After that it is back to the bathroom to spray another layer of cleaner and clean the shower with a scrubby sponge just for that purpose. I clean the mirror, sink and toilet, change out the towels and I'm done.  The kitchen gets done on Kitchen Day, office on Office Day, and laundry area on Laundry Day.

    Since the cleaning part doesn't take long, I usually play "catch up" on this day too. If there is something that needs to get done that week that I ran out of time for, I do it in the afternoon. Or I spend a little more time on the Focus area of the week, which I will do a post about that later.